Unhappy farm worker Mei borrows some money from her boyfriend Seng, boards a ship to Japan and leaves him broken-hearted. But when she is deported, it is Seng that greets her at the harbour for a night of bitter reflection.

Ping Ping is 19 and wants to go to Japan to work in a car parts company. She's under the guardianship of her aunt, Madame Tien, who shuffles her between two jobs - working in a pig farm, and cleaning dishes in a rundown restaurant. Tien is also involved in a 'baby factory' scheme, pairing young women with migrant workers and then selling the babies for money. Both survive with each other in a love-hate symbiotic manner, until a truth about her aunt is revealed to Ping Ping.